Virtual bookshelf

ABSTRACT

A virtual bookshelf system provides a user a way to browse and locate information associated with a plurality of documents. The virtual bookshelf system contains classification information to classify the documents in a hierarchical structure that includes a plurality of hierarchical levels based on pre-defined categories. The virtual bookshelf system displays a portion of the hierarchical structure including a representation of the categories. A user of the virtual bookshelf system may browse through the categories in the hierarchical levels to learn the general topics of the available documents. The user is permitted to select a particular category, and in response, the virtual bookshelf system displays document information for documents classified in the category selected. When selected, peripheral themes or issues are displayed such that the themes relate to the main issues covered by the documents classified under the selected category. The virtual bookshelf system also includes a virtual clerk for locating documents of interest. A user enters a locate term in the virtual clerk, and in response, the virtual bookshelf system locates at least one match category in the hierarchical structure that relates to the locate term. It also displays a portion of the hierarchical structure that includes the match category such that a path is defined from the highest hierarchical levels to the hierarchical level of the match category. The virtual bookshelf system further includes a natural way to disambiguate locate terms that relate to more than one category.

This is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/520,499,filed, Aug. 29, 1995 U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,201, entitled, “A VirtualBookshelf.”

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of user interfaces, and moreparticularly to a visual paradigm for browsing and locating information.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

FIGS. 2a-2 f, 3 a-3 b, 4 a-4 h, 5 a-5 d, 6 a-6 d, 7 a-7 e, 8 a-8 b, 9a-9 f contain material which is subject to copyright protection. Thecopyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of these Figures as they appear in the United States Patent andTrademark patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A general purpose search and retrieval system includes a database orrepository of source information. For example, the repository mayinclude documents, such as books, magazines, journals, etc. In general,the user accesses the repository to retrieve selected portions ofinformation. Computer systems have increased the use of search andretrieval systems because a computer may access a database or repositoryfrom a remote location. The utility of such a search and retrievalsystem is to permit a user to access one or more sources of informationin a large repository. For example, a search and retrieval system maypermit a user to view documents available in a large repositoryequivalent to a library of books.

These search and retrieval systems require ways for the user to searchthe information contained within the source repository to access thedesired information. For example, in a document based search andretrieval system, a user searches the repository of documents toretrieve one or more documents on a selected topic. In order to narrowthe selection of documents, some search and retrieval systems partitionthe source repository into libraries or files. If the user selects aparticular library or file, then the user is permitted to access theinformation contained within that library or file. Typically, thelibraries or files are organized into general topics. However, eachlibrary or file may still contain thousands of documents. Therefore, tolocate subtopics within a more general topic, the user must searchthrough thousands of documents.

Search and retrieval systems include a search mechanism in order tolocate information in the source repository. To search for documentswithin the source repository, a user enters a term that most resemblesthe source or topic desired by the user. The proper generation of thesearch term is absolutely crucial to locate the most relevant documents.Typically, in such a search system, the user enters the search term, andthe system displays a list of documents that contains the specificsearch term. If the search term is too narrow, then the user runs therisk of missing the most relevant information in the source repository.The use of a broad search term covers a wider range of topics than thenarrow search term, but typically identifies too many documents.Therefore, such search systems require that the user be able toconstruct a search term that covers the topic adequately, withoutencompassing too much material. Consequently, these search systems donot provide a good way for a user to locate documents in large sourcerepositories.

In addition to being difficult to use, search and retrieval systems arenon-intuitive. A user of the system does not typically think in terms ofthese specific search terms that are required to produce the best searchresults. When a search has been conducted, a user does not know whetherthe search has located all the documents covering the topic desired. Inaddition, search and retrieval systems do not provide a user with anyindication as to the classification of a document, and the location ofthe document within the classification structure. The retrieval of onlythe documents containing the specific search term leads to tunnel visionin that the user is not permitted to see other issues, known asperipheral issues, that relate to the topics desired.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A virtual bookshelf system provides a user a way to browse and locateinformation associated with a plurality of documents. The virtualbookshelf system contains classification information to classify thedocuments in a hierarchical structure that includes a plurality ofhierarchical levels based on pre-defined categories. The virtualbookshelf system displays a portion of the hierarchical structureincluding a representation of the categories. A user of the virtualbookshelf system may browse through the categories in the hierarchicallevels to learn the general topics of the available documents. The useris permitted to select a particular category, and in response, thevirtual bookshelf system displays document information for documentsclassified in the category selected. In one embodiment, categories aredisplayed in a history section to define a current path for thehierarchical structure from the highest hierarchical level to acurrently selected hierarchical level. In addition, categories for thecurrently selected hierarchical level are displayed in a navigationalsection.

The virtual bookshelf system is cataloged to include the classificationinformation. The classification information includes, in addition to thecategories arranged in the hierarchical structure, cross referencesamong the categories to further classify the documents. By crossreferencing the categories, a detailed and accurate classification ofthe documents is achieved. The classification information furtherincludes index heads and index context entries that are related to theindex heads. The index heads are content carrying words from thedocuments but the words are not pre-defined categories. The indexcontext entries are terms from the documents that are used in thecontext of the index heads. The hierarchical structure is expandedthrough mapping of the index heads into the pre-defined categories.

In one embodiment, the virtual bookshelf system includes functions forselected categories and index heads. A list function displays the listof documents classified for a selected category. A view functiondisplays themes from the documents that are classified for the categoryselected. The virtual bookshelf system also includes action functionsthat operate on selected documents. An expand function displays the fulltext of the selected document. Also, an abstract function displays abrief synopsis of a selected document, and a speed read functiondisplays full text of the selected document with major content bearingwords highlighted. Furthermore, a summary function displays a summary ofthe document including main ideas of the document, and a theme functiondisplays theme data identifying major themes for the document.

The virtual bookshelf system also includes a virtual clerk for locatingdocuments of interest. The virtual clerk receives a locate term forlocating information from the documents. In response, the virtualbookshelf system locates, if possible, one or more match categories inthe hierarchical structure that relates to the locate term, and itdisplays a portion of the hierarchical structure that includes the matchcategory such that a path is defined from the highest hierarchicallevels to the hierarchical level of the match category. The locate termmay be a natural language term, a category from the hierarchicalstructure, a concept, or an example of text from a document.

The virtual bookshelf system further includes a natural way todisambiguate locate terms that relate to more than one category. Whenthe locate term is entered, the virtual bookshelf system determineswhether the locate term identifies more than one category in theclassification system. If the locate term relates to more than onecategory, then all match categories identified by the locate term aredisplayed. The virtual bookshelf system receives input from a user toidentify a unique sense from the several match categories. In response,the proper sense for the match category is displayed.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparentfrom the accompanying drawings, and from the detailed description thatfollows below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present invention will be apparentfrom the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment ofthe invention with references to the following drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a configurationfor implementing the virtual bookshelf.

FIG. 2a illustrates an example home page or starting page for navigatingthe virtual bookshelf.

FIG. 2b illustrates a display after expansion of the “science,technology, and education” category into a number of categories arrangedin a lower hierarchical level.

FIG. 2c illustrates a display after expansion of the “hard science andtechnology” category into a number of categories arranged in two lowerhierarchical levels.

FIG. 2d illustrates a display after expansion of the “electronics” and“computer industry” categories into a number of categories arranged intwo lower hierarchical levels.

FIG. 2e illustrates a display after expansion of the “computer softwareindustry” and “operating systems” categories into a number of categoriesarranged in two lower hierarchical levels.

FIG. 2f illustrates a list function for the virtual bookshelf system.

FIG. 3a illustrates an example display that includes a peripheral viewfor a selected category.

FIG. 3b illustrates a second example display that includes peripheralviews.

FIG. 4a illustrates an example display after execution of the indexfunction for a selected document.

FIG. 4b illustrates a first example display that includes a first pointof view abstract.

FIG. 4c illustrates a second example display that includes a point ofview abstract.

FIG. 4d illustrates an example display for the full text function for aselected document.

FIG. 4e illustrates an example display for the speed read function.

FIG. 4f illustrates an example display for the summary function.

FIG. 4g illustrates an example display for the theme function.

FIG. 4h illustrates a continuation display for the theme functionexample display illustrated in FIG. 4g.

FIG. 5a illustrates an example display of index context entries for aselected category.

FIG. 5b illustrates an example display including a list of documents fora selected index entry.

FIG. 5c illustrates an example display including a list of indexreferences below a selected document.

FIG. 5d illustrates an example display of text for a selected referencewithin a selected document.

FIG. 6a illustrates an example display with a combined back-of-bookindex for all documents classified under a selected category.

FIG. 6b illustrates an example display generated in response toselection of the view function from a combined back-of-book index.

FIG. 6c illustrates an example display that displays index referencesbeneath a selected document.

FIG. 6d illustrates an example display of text for a selected referencewithin a selected document.

FIG. 7a illustrates an example display that includes the high levelcategories from the knowledge catalog including the “business andeconomics” category expanded to show the next lower level.

FIG. 7b illustrates an example display that includes the “business andindustry” category expanded to include the next two lower levels.

FIG. 7c illustrates a virtual bookshelf display for expanding the“marketing” category to include the next two lower levels.

FIG. 7d illustrates an example display in response to invoking the listfunction and selecting the “OS/2” category from the display illustratedin FIG. 7c.

FIG. 7e illustrates an example display with a selected documentcross-referenced under the “OS/2” and “marketing” categories.

FIG. 8a illustrates an example home page display including a display ofthe high level categories from the knowledge catalog.

FIG. 8b illustrates an example display in response to selecting thegeneric classification and to entering a “P” in the virtual clerk dataentry field.

FIG. 9a illustrates an example display for knowledge catalog or topicsearching with the virtual clerk.

FIG. 9b illustrates an example display for concept searching with thevirtual clerk.

FIG. 9c illustrates an example display for querying the virtualbookshelf with a term that is ambiguous.

FIG. 9d illustrates an example display for querying the virtualbookshelf with a natural language query that is ambiguous.

FIG. 9e illustrates the query by example approach for the virtualbookshelf.

FIG. 9f illustrates the query by example approach that results inmultiple classifications.

FIG. 10 illustrates a high level block diagram of a general purposecomputer system in which the virtual bookshelf system of the presentinvention may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Virtual Bookshelf Overview

A virtual bookshelf provides a visual paradigm for locating and viewinginformation. The virtual bookshelf is cataloged to contain a pluralityof source documents such that the source documents are classified in ahierarchical structure of concepts and topics contained in thedocuments. The hierarchical structure is based on a knowledge catalog,and the classification of the documents is based on one or more themescontained in the documents. A user locates, via the visual paradigm ofthe virtual bookshelf, information contained within the sourcedocuments. Once located, the virtual bookshelf system permits the userto extract information in a variety of ways.

The user may locate information from the source documents by browsingthe hierarchical structure of topics. In this way, the user is permittedto visualize, in a hierarchical structure, the concepts and topicscontained in the documents. In the preferred embodiment, for a selectedtopic in the hierarchy, the user is presented with peripheral issues,related to a selected topic, prior to receiving a list of documents forthat topic. In addition to browsing the hierarchies, the user may querythe virtual bookshelf system with a token to locate information. Inresponse, the virtual bookshelf displays a portion of the hierarchicalstructure in the topic area relating to the token. In this way, the useris permitted to view concepts and topics that are peripheral to thetoken.

In a preferred embodiment, the virtual bookshelf system is analogous toa bookstore. For example, a person may visit a bookstore to findreference books on a selected topic. In order to locate books on theselected topic, the person may proceed to the area in the bookstore thatcontains the general category for which the selected topic is included.For example, if the selected topic is “semiconductor manufacturing”,then the person would locate the general area in the bookstore thatcontains books on the category “technology.” In addition, the person maylook for more specific subcategories under the general category. For thesemiconductor manufacturing example, the person may look for the subcategory “electronics” under the general category “technology.” Afterlocating the books in the sub category “electronics”, the person mayproceed to search the back of book indexes of books for the selectedtopic “semiconductor manufacturing.”

The bookstore paradigm for locating information requires a person tofirst locate the general category. For the “semiconductor manufacturing”example, a person does not directly search for books on manufacturing.Instead, the person proceeds to the area of the bookstore that containsbooks on technology and electronics. Furthermore, once the person is inthe proximity of the technology and electronic books, other books onrelated topics are in plain view. For the above example, although theprimary area of interest is “semiconductor manufacturing”, a person mayalso be interested in books on engineering economy as it relates to“semiconductor manufacturing.” Consequently, in the bookstore paradigm,a person is able to view a number of related topics, referred to asperipheral topics, when in the area of the general category.

The virtual bookshelf provides a similar paradigm as the bookstore. Forexample, a user of the virtual bookshelf system browses the hierarchicalstructure to view categories for the source documents similar to aperson that browses the aisles of a bookstore to view general categoriesof books available. Furthermore, the user of the virtual bookshelf ispresented with peripheral topics or themes relating to the generaltopic.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a configurationfor implementing the virtual bookshelf. The virtual bookshelfconfiguration contains documents, labeled documents 100 in FIG. 1. Ingeneral, the documents 100 provide the source of available informationfor use with the virtual bookshelf. The documents 100 may include acompilation of information from any source. For example, the documents100 may be information stored on a computer system as readable text.Alternatively, the documents 100 may be accessed over a network andstored at a central location, such as a server. The virtual bookshelfconfiguration also contains reference tables 150. As is described morefully below, the reference tables 150 are generated based on thedocuments.

The virtual bookshelf configuration further includes control modules 110for executing the functions described herein. As shown in FIG. 1, thecontrol modules 110 include a positioning module 120, a navigationmodule 130, and a command module 135. The control modules 110 receive,as inputs, the documents 100, user input, and reference tables 150, andgenerate, as an output, display information. Specifically, thepositioning module 120 receives query information from the user input tolocate information in the virtual bookshelf. In response, thepositioning module 120 utilizes the reference tables to generate displayinformation that reflects the general location in the hierarchy forwhich the specific information requested is located. The navigationmodule 130 receives user input, and generates, from the reference tables150, display information to permit a user to browse the hierarchies ofthe virtual bookshelf. Furthermore, the command module 135 generatesdisplay information to implement a plurality of action functions as isdescribed more fully below.

The virtual bookshelf configuration also includes the screen module 140.The screen module 140 receives display information from the controlmodules 110, and generates specific graphical information for output toan output display. The specific operation of the screen module 140 isdependent upon the computer system and output display. The screen module140 is intended to represent a broad category of output display drivers,which are well known in the art and will not be described further.

Cataloging the Virtual Bookshelf

The virtual bookshelf is cataloged through generation of the referencetables 150. As discussed above, the information in the reference tables150 is based on the documents 100 and is utilized to generate thedisplay information. The reference tables 150 may be generated from thedocuments 100 through use of a computer program operating on a computersystem. Alternatively, the reference tables 150 may be generated andcompiled from human labor, and subsequently input to the virtualbookshelf configuration as tables. As shown in FIG. 1, the referencetables 150 include theme records 155, document table 160, topic table165, index table 170, document/topic table 175, index/topic table 185,abstract records 187, speed-read records 190, and summary records 195.

The document table 160 contains information about each of the documents100 including document level theme and statistical information. Thetopic table 165 includes a hierarchy of topics for the entire set ofdocuments 100. Specifically, the topics stored in the topic table 165are based on themes extracted from the documents 100. The extractedthemes or topics are then mapped to static ontologies in a knowledgecatalog. In this way, the topic table 165 stores the document topics ina hierarchical structure for use by the control modules 110.

The document/topic table 175 contains a cross reference between thedocuments 100 and the topics stored in the topic table 165. The indextable 170 contains index information including the text, type, andlocation of index phrases from the documents 100. The index/topic table185 contains cross references between index heads, stored in the indextable 170, and the topics stored in the topic table 165. The mapping ofindex heads to topics for generation of the topic table is describedmore fully below. The reference tables 150 further includes themerecords 155. The theme records 155 contain thematic information thatidentifies the most important themes from each document. The abstractrecords 187 includes at least one abstract for each document in thedocuments 100. The speed read records 190 contain, for each document indocuments 100, main ideas and concepts, expressed in an abbreviatedform, for the corresponding document. When displayed, a user ispermitted to speed read the corresponding document. Furthermore, thesummary records 195 contain a summary for each document in the documents100.

A knowledge catalog is used in the virtual bookshelf of the presentinvention. The knowledge catalog provides a unique infrastructure toaccurately represent concepts contained in the documents that defineknowledge. The knowledge catalog includes a set of static ontologies todefine knowledge. The knowledge catalog may be characterized asincluding several static ontologies because the knowledge catalogprovides multiple views, characterizations, and organizations ofconcepts.

In general, the knowledge catalog contains a broad coverage of conceptsto provide a world view of knowledge. The static ontologies areconfigured as hierarchical structures such that knowledge concepts areorganized from high level generalized concepts down to more specificconcepts. The static ontologies are parallel and independent of eachother. The following categories includes a list of static ontologiesarranged in a hierarchical structure for use with the virtual bookshelfof the present invention. Although the previous list includes a set ofstatic ontologies for the preferred embodiment, modifications to theclassifications or concepts may be made without deviating from thespirit or scope of the invention.

Each ontology contains a plurality of levels that form the hierarchicalstructure. For example, a “business and industry” static ontologycontains three levels of concept classifications under the highest levelconcept, and “economics” contains four levels of conceptclassifications. The actual configuration, structure and orientation ofa particular ontology is dependent upon the subject matter or field ofthe ontology. Therefore, each ontology in the set of static ontologiescontain a different point of view. The different points of view for thestatic ontologies result in different approaches or different ways ofviewing the knowledge concepts in the different static ontologies.Consequently, the organization of the knowledge concepts in eachontology is not consistent. As is explained below, the different pointsof view for the ontologies permit viewing or browsing “like” forms ofknowledge with “unlike” forms of knowledge in the virtual bookshelf.

The ontologies contained within the knowledge catalog are organized suchthat the concepts are independent of language and culture. Therefore,the set of static ontologies in the knowledge catalog provide a worldview of knowledge for the virtual bookshelf. Some of the ontologies arenot as much industries but rather concrete concepts. In the hierarchicalstructure, some sub-classifications provide factual information for thehigher level or parent classification, while other sub-classificationsprovide more richness to the parent classification. For example, theterm “computer program” provides more richness to the parentclassification “computer industry.” However the term “Californiaavocados” provides factual information for the parent classification“avocados” by representing that the avocados are from California.

Some static ontologies represent knowledge concepts that have concretedefinitions, but may be applicable to one or more specific industries orcategories (e.g. the terms are generic). For example, the word “plant”,when used to describe a manufacturing plant, is a concrete term thatapplies to many industries. Other static ontologies containrepresentations of words that are not concrete, but rather describeabstract concepts. For example, the concepts of “knowledge” and“methods” do not describe material items, but are “abstract” concepts.

The hierarchically structured classifications for the documents in thevirtual bookshelf may be semantic derivatives and/or linguisticderivatives of the high level concept. For example, a classificationhierarchy may associate a “house” with articles placed within a house,such as dining room tables, chairs, bedroom furniture, etc. For thisexample, a classification hierarchy that includes semantic derivativeconcepts based on the “house” concept is desirable. However, for apurely linguistic classification hierarchy, the house “concept” mayinclude types of houses, such as a ranch style house, a contemporaryhouse, etc. Utilizing the static ontologies, the virtual bookshelf linksboth concepts representing articles placed within a house and conceptsrepresenting types of houses to the higher level “house” concept.Consequently, the virtual bookshelf presents a true knowledge map of thedocuments.

The topic table 165 in the virtual bookshelf system contains crossreferences among a plurality of topics. In general, cross references arecontained in the topic table 165 if a document is classified under morethan one category in the knowledge catalog. By cross referencing thecategories, a detailed and accurate classification of the documents isachieved. An example of cross-referencing categories in the topic table165 is described below in conjunction with Table 1.

The index table 170 stores index phrases extracted from the documentsincluding the text, type, and location of the index phrases. The indexphrases include index heads and index context entries that relate to theindex heads. If the index context entry is not a head word, then theindex table 170 contains the parent or index head for the index contextentry. The index heads are content carrying words from the documents butthe words are not pre-defined knowledge catalog categories. For example,the term “OS/2”, which defines a specific operating system, is a contentcarrying noun. However, “OS/2” is not a specific category in theknowledge catalog. If the documents in the virtual bookshelf includematerial on “OS/2”, then “OS/2” is stored as an index head. The indexcontext entries are index phrases that are used within the context of anindex head. For the OS/2 example above, if a document containedinformation on the marketing of the OS/2 operating system, then“marketing” is stored as an index context entry for the index head“OS/2.” Note that marketing may also be stored as an index head. Indexheads are dynamically classified in the hierarchical structure, and thatclassification is stored with the index head. From the location of theindex phrases, index references are displayed as described more fullybelow.

The index/topic table 185 stores information to map the index phrasesfrom the index table 170 to the topics or categories in the topic table165. Therefore, the index/topic table 185 provides a link between theindex phrases and the categories in the knowledge catalog. For example,the index head “OS/2” is mapped to the category “operating systems” suchthat the OS/2 term resides in the next hierarchical level underneath the“operating systems” category. In this way, the hierarchical structure isexpanded to include the topics from the topic table 165 as well as theindex phrases from the index table 170.

As described fully below, a user is presented with a hierarchicalstructure of categories that reflect the content of the availabledocuments 100. The categories in the hierarchical structure, displayedin response to user input, are topics (e.g. themes derived from thedocuments) and index heads. In general, the navigational module 130utilizes the information in the reference tables 150 to generate thehierarchical structure for display in response to user input. Alltopics, including cross references to other topics, from the availabledocuments 100 are stored in the topic table 165 including thehierarchical arrangement of the topics. In addition, all index headsfrom the available documents 100 are referenced to the topics in theindex/topic table 185 to expand the hierarchical structure. Thenavigational module 130 utilizes the topic table 165 and the index/topictable 185 to display the hierarchical structure. As described below, thenavigational module 130 displays a start or home page to permit a userto navigate the hierarchical structure. For subsequent displays, thenavigational module 130 receives user input, and it displays a differentportion of the hierarchical structure based on the selection ofcategories or the invocation of functions. The navigational module 130also stores navigational path information that defines the usernavigated path from the high level to a currently selected level of thehierarchical structure.

At any point in the hierarchical structure, a user may obtain theavailable set of documents for a selected category, entitled a bookshelfset of documents. The bookshelf set of documents contains all documentsclassified for the selected category. The bookshelf set of documents isbased on the location of the category in the hierarchical structure. Asa user navigates through the hierarchical structure, the lower levels ofthe hierarchical structure contain sub categories of categories in thenext higher level. The virtual bookshelf utilizes this paradigm togenerate a bookshelf set of documents such that documents in a bookshelfset contain topics and themes derived from the navigational pathgenerated by the user.

A category may be presented in the hierarchical structure at manydifferent locations. For example, a category for “marketing” may be asub category for “operating systems” as well as a sub category for“computer hardware.” For this example, a first bookshelf set ofdocuments for “marketing” as a sub category for “operating systems” isdifferent than a second bookshelf set of documents for “marketing” as asub category for “computer hardware” (e.g. the first bookshelf set ofdocuments is about marketing operating systems, whereas the secondbookshelf set of documents is about marketing computer hardware).

The control modules 110 generate, from use of the reference tables 150,the bookshelf set of documents for a selected category. In general, togenerate a bookshelf set, the command module 135 accesses the topictable 165 and the index/topic table 185 to extract all relevant topicsand index heads for the selected category. Because the hierarchicalstructure is, in essence, a tree structure that contains severalbranches, the navigational module 130 retains hierarchical structurepath information of the current path navigated (i.e. the navigationalpath used to locate the category selected). Based on the hierarchicalstructure path information, the command module 135 accesses the topictable 165 and the index/topic table 185 to extract the relevant topicsin the hierarchical structure path. Based on these relevant topics, thecommand module 135 accesses the document/topic table 175 to extract alist of documents that contains material on the relevant topics in thehierarchical structure path.

Navigating the Virtual Bookshelf

Navigating the Virtual Bookshelf Using Topics:

FIG. 2a illustrates an example home page or starting page for navigatingthe virtual bookshelf. The following example displays (FIGS. 2a-2 e)illustrate navigating with the categories generated from the topic table165. The display includes a menu of the hierarchies labeled 220 on FIG.2a. As shown in FIG. 2a, the virtual bookshelf system displays a numberof high level categories that are indicative of the topics contained inthe available documents 100. In a preferred embodiment, the highestlevel categories are derived from the knowledge catalog. Specifically,the highest level categories are “science, technology, and education”,“business and economics”, “government and military”, “socialenvironment”, “geography”, “abstract ideas and concepts”, and “genericclassification.”

Each top category contains an icon, such as the icon for the “science,technology, and education” labeled 200 on FIG. 2a, that graphicallyrepresents the respective category. In a preferred embodiment, eachcategory name is displayed in a box, such as box 210 for “science,technology, and education”, for selection by a user. Within the box fora corresponding category, a number, such as the number “760” for the“science, technology and education” category, is displayed. The numberindicates the number of documents that relate to the particular categoryavailable on the virtual bookshelf. Furthermore, a symbol “>>”, labeled222 on FIG. 2a, is provided in the box to indicate that there are lowerlevel hierarchies within the corresponding category.

Below the menu of the hierarchies 220 is a button bar area that containsa number of buttons to execute functions and commands within the virtualbookshelf. Specifically, in one embodiment for the home page, the buttonbar area on the output display contains five action buttons labeled 225,230, 235, 255, 240, and 250 on FIG. 2a. In one embodiment, the actionfunctions are invoked by “clicking” the corresponding action button withan input device, such as a mouse. As is described further below, not allbuttons are valid for all selected items on any particular display.

The contract button, labeled 225 on FIG. 2a, includes the “<<” symbol,and invokes the contract function. The contract function displays anupward or higher category in the hierarchical structure to provide moregeneralized information. The expand action button, labeled 230, includesthe “>>” symbol, and invokes the expand function. The expand functiondisplays lower hierarchical structures that provide more specificinformation. The navigation module 130 executes the contract and expandfunctions, in response to user input, by accessing the topic table 165and the index/topic table 185 to retrieve the hierarchies.

The list action button, labeled 235, invokes a list function thatdisplays a bibliographical list of documents represented by the selectedcategory. To execute the list function, the command module 135 generatesa bookshelf set of documents for the selected category. The commandmodule 135 then accesses the document table 160 to extract thebibliographical list of documents for the documents identified in thebookshelf set of documents.

The view action button, label 255 on FIG. 2a, invokes a peripheraldisplay function that, in essence, displays a peripheral view of aselected category by displaying relates issues or themes to the selectedcategory. The command module 135 executes the view or peripheral displayfunction by first generating a bookshelf set of documents for theselected category. The command module 135 then accesses the themerecords 155 to obtain the themes corresponding to the documents in thebookshelf set of documents. These themes represent the most importantthemes contained in the bookshelf set of documents for the selectedcategory. In one embodiment, the virtual bookshelf system limits theselection of themes to the 16 most important themes. For each themeused, the command module 135 generates a bookshelf set of documents. Thetheme bookshelf sets of documents are generated from the hierarchicalstructure defined by the user's navigational path to the selectedcategory. Therefore, the theme bookshelf sets of documents presentseveral subsets of the entire bookshelf set of documents for theselected category.

The detail action button, labeled 240 on FIG. 2a, invokes a detailfunction that displays all entries that pertain to the selected categoryas an index head in the index table 170. To execute the detail function,the command module 135 utilizes the index/topic table 185 to correlatetopics of the selected category to the relevant index heads, and then itaccesses the index table 170 to extract the relevant entries.

The index action button 250 invokes an index function that displays a“back of book” index for a selected category or document in atraditional “back of book” index format. For a selected category, the“back of book” index is a combined “back of book” index for a bookshelfset of documents that combines the indexes of all of the documents inthe bookshelf set. To execute the index function for a bookshelf set ofdocuments, the command module 135 receives the navigational pathinformation used to generate the bookshelf set. Based on thenavigational path information, the command module 135 utilizes theindex/topic table 185 to correlate the categories in the navigationalpath to index heads, and it accesses the index table 170 to extract the“back of book” index information for the index heads identified. Toexecute the index function for a single document, the command module 135utilizes the document/topic table 175 to obtain the topics contained inthe selected document, and it accesses the index/topic table 185 tocorrelate the topics obtained to index heads in the index table 170. The“back of book” index information is extracted based on the index headsidentified. The contract, expand, list, view, detail, and indexfunctions are described and illustrated more fully below.

The virtual bookshelf display area 220 permits highlighting of aparticular category for selection. In one embodiment, the border or boxaround the category area is highlighted or boldfaced to indicateselection of the particular category. For example, as shown in FIG. 2a,the “science, technology, and education” category 210 is selected, andit is indicated by the highlighted border for the category. The homepage shown in FIG. 2a further includes a virtual clerk for locatinginformation within the virtual bookshelf paradigm of the presentinvention. The virtual clerk contains a virtual clerk data entry field270 and a locate button 280. The operation of the virtual clerk isdescribed more fully below.

A user may browse the virtual bookshelf to locate information throughnavigation of the hierarchies. FIG. 2b illustrates expansion of the“science, technology, and education” category into a number ofcategories arranged in a lower hierarchical level. The example shown inFIG. 2b is generated in response to a user selecting the “science,technology, and education” category and invoking the expand function viathe expand button 230. In general, when one of the high level knowledgecatalog categories are selected for expansion, a list bf categories inthe next lower level of the hierarchy for the selected item aredisplayed. The categories in the next level of the hierarchy for the“science, technology, and education” category are “communications”,“education”, “hard science and technology”, “social sciences”, and“transportation.” Again, the number of documents available in thevirtual bookshelf system that pertain to that category is displayedadjacent to the category name.

FIG. 2c illustrates further expansion of the virtual bookshelfhierarchy. For the example illustrated in FIG. 2c, the sub category“hard science and technology” was selected, and the expand action button230 pressed. In response, the virtual bookshelf system displays thefirst page of the hierarchical structure for the parent node of “hardscience and technology.” The hierarchical structure is displayed in anavigation section 310 and a history section 300. The navigation 310further includes a scroll bar 320 to permit a user to scroll up andscroll down the hierarchy for the “hard science and technology” parentcategory. When a category is selected for expansion, the category isadded to navigation history, and it is displayed in the history section300 located above the navigation section 310. For the example shown inFIG. 2c, the “science, technology, and education” and “hard science andtechnology” categories are shown as the parent categories for theselected hierarchy displayed in the navigation section 310.

A category may be labeled as “general” as shown in both the “biology”and “electronics” parent categories. These general categories representdocuments that have been classified under its parent category in thehierarchy. For the example displayed in FIG. 2c, there are 390 documentsrepresented by the category “electronics.” Of those 390 documents, 270of the documents are classified under “computer industry”, 165 areclassified under “electrical and electronic engineering”, and 20 areclassified under the parent category “electronics.” A document may beclassified under more than one area. Categories in broken line boxes,such as the “television” category under the “electronics” parentcategory, represent those categories derived from multipleclassifications of documents. These categories are displayed as a resultof cross referencing in the reference tables 150. At this level ofbrowsing the hierarchy, a user may select an action function via anaction button for any category in the history section 300 or navigationsection 310.

FIG. 2d illustrates displaying further detail of a selected hierarchy.For the example shown in FIG. 2d, the “computer industry” category wasselected, and the expand action button 230 was pressed resulting in thedisplay of the first page of the expanded hierarchy for the “computerindustry” category. Furthermore, the scroll bar 320 was used to page tothe current display screen. In response to these user actions, thevirtual bookshelf displays the selected category “computer industry” andits parent category “electronics” in the history section 300. Thevirtual bookshelf also displays the second page of the next two levelsof the hierarchy under the “computer hardware industry” category in thenavigation section 310.

As discussed above, the hierarchical structures are dynamically createdfrom the inner play of the topic table 165 and the index/topic table 185(FIG. 1). For the example display shown in FIG. 2d, the “computerhardware industry” and the “computer software industry” categories arepart of the basic structures stored in the topic table 165. The“International Business Machines Corporation” category is an index headthat is cross referenced to the topic “computer industry” in theindex/topic table 185. In the next lower level under the “computersoftware industry” category, “databases and spreadsheets”, “documentmanagement and work flow software”, and “operating systems” are part ofthe basic structure stored in the topic table 165. The categories“Microsoft” and “Oracle Systems Corporation” are index heads from theindex table 170, and are cross referenced to the topic “computersoftware industry” in the index/topic table 185.

FIG. 2e illustrates further expansion of the “operating systems”category selected from the display shown in FIG. 2d. The displayillustrated in FIG. 2e is generated in response to the user selectingthe “operating systems” category and pressing the expand button 230. Asshown in FIG. 2e, the selected category “operating systems” and itsparent category “computer software industry” are added to the historysection 300. In addition, the next two levels of the hierarchy under the“operating systems” category are displayed. For this example, “operatingsystems” is the lowest level category of the static hierarchy defined inthe topic table 165. The categories “DOS” and “OS/2” are derived fromthe index/topic table 185. The “marketing” categories are identified bythe broken line box because they are topic cross references under “DOS”,“OS/2”, and “UNIX.” The hierarchies that include “marketing” are derivedfrom documents that are classified as covering both the parent categoryand marketing subject matter.

FIG. 2f illustrates a list function for the virtual bookshelf system.For the example display illustrated in FIG. 2f, the “OS/2” category wasselected, and the list active button 235 was pressed (FIG. 2e). Inresponse, the selected category “OS/2” is added to the history section300, and the first page of the bibliographical entries for the 30documents classified under “OS/2” is displayed. At this point, any ofthe display categories in the history section 300 may be selected, andthe contract button 225 pressed in order to move back up the hierarchyto the selected level. In addition, a document may be selected at thistime and a document function invoked.

Virtual Bookshelf Peripheral Display:

The virtual bookshelf generates peripheral views. In general, peripheralviews present a user with one or more themes that relate to the currentbookshelf set of documents. In the preferred embodiment, the virtualbookshelf system displays the most relevant themes from the currentbookshelf set of documents. As described below, each theme or categoryis presented as a bookshelf set of documents for selection by the user.The peripheral view presents information to the user in a visual mannerthat permits the user to obtain a broad view of the topics or themescontained in the current bookshelf set of documents. The presentation ofthemes for a selected bookshelf set is entitled a peripheral viewbecause the user is permitted to view specific issues or themescontained in the bookshelf set, thereby broadening the view of thecontent contained with the selected bookshelf set of documents.

A major problem with prior art search and retrieval systems is tunnelvision in that the user does not get a sense of location, in terms oftopic or document classification, and the user does not receiveinformation on related issues or topics contained within a found set ofdocuments. For example, typical prior art search and retrieval systemspresent a user with a list of documents in response to a search request.Under the prior art paradigm, the user only views the title of thedocuments. In contrast, the virtual bookshelf's peripheral views providea broader view of information for a found set of documents (e.g. thebookshelf set) by visually presenting the themes contained in thebookshelf set. From the broader presentation of the themes, a user mayselect a more specific theme topic to narrow the bookshelf set to thedesired theme or topic. Furthermore, when presented with numerous themesrelated to the selected category, the user may select an area ofinterest that, but for the presentation in the peripheral view, the userwould not have considered otherwise.

FIGS. 3a and 3 b illustrate one embodiment for peripheral views. Thevirtual bookshelf displays the example display illustrated in FIG. 3a inresponse to a user selecting the “OS/2” category and pressing the viewbutton 255 (FIG. 2e). The display provides a peripheral view bypresenting a plurality of related issues and themes to the selectedbookshelf (e.g. the OS/2 bookshelf for this example display). In thehistory section 300, the virtual bookshelf system displays a status barthat contains a bookshelf 440, a bibliographical field 420, a locatormap 375, a category area 430, and a control arrow 435 for the bookshelf440. The bookshelf 440 provides a graphical representation of the fortydocuments classified under “OS/2,” with each book on the shelfrepresenting a document in the set. In one embodiment, the bookshelf 440displays ten books at a time. Since more than ten books are located onthe bookshelf 440 for the “OS/2” category, the control arrow 435 isactive, indicating that more documents are available. The books in eachbookshelf are ranked, left to right, according to thematic content andprominence. The width of a book indicates the “length” or total amountof thematic content, relative to the other books in the shelf, containedin the document. The height of the book indicates the thematicprominence of the selected topic (“OS/2” in this example), relative tothe other books in the bookshelf.

The bibliographical field 420 displays information, such as author,title, publishing date, that has been stored for the documents. Thelocator map 375 provides a view of all the peripheral issues or themes,represented as color-coded dots, for the OS/2 bookshelf. The OS/2bookshelf 440 is represented as a hollow dot located at the center ofthe locator map 375. The square, labeled 377 in the center of thelocator map 375, indicates which themes are visible in the display area310. If there are more peripheral themes than appear in the display area310, the locator map 375 indicates the position and number of themesavailable for viewing. The locator map 375 also illustrates thedistribution of the themes by the top-level categories into which thethemes are grouped.

The display area 310 provides a view of the peripheral themes for thedocuments in the OS/2 bookshelf. The peripheral themes are spaced aroundthe central OS/2 bookshelf, represented as a hollow dot 370, and thethemes are grouped according to their top-level category in theknowledge catalog. For this display example, the high level category“science, technology, and education” is located in the upper left comer,“business and economics” is located in the upper right corner,“government and military” is located in the lower right comer, “socialenvironment” is located in the lower center area, and the genericclassification is located in the lower left corner. Initially, thehollow dot 370 is located in the center of the display area 310, but asthe position of the window is changed to view peripheral themes that arenot visible, then the hollow dot 370 may not be visible. The locator map375, however, always indicates the position of the display area 310,relative to the central OS/2 bookshelf. The position of the display area310 is changed using the scrollbar 320 or the locator map 375. Inaddition, the set of buttons changes, indicating that the user canselect viewing options for the document set or for the individualdocuments in the set.

From the example display shown in FIG. 3a, the contract button 225 maybe pressed in order to move back up into the hierarchy for the selectedcategory. If one of the peripheral themes is selected, such as the DOSperipheral theme, the expand function provides a combined view of theselected topic and theme. If a document is selected, the expand button230 changes the display to show the full text of the document. Inaddition, a document may be selected from a bookshelf and any of theaction buttons may be pressed to give different views (e.g. index,abstract, full text, etc.) of the document. Furthermore, the list buttonmay be pressed to change the display to a list of the documents, rankedaccording to the theme strength for “OS/2” in each document.

FIG. 3b illustrates the selection of a peripheral theme from the displayarea 310. For the display example shown in FIG. 3b, the “operatingsystems” theme was selected, and the expand button 230 was pressed. Theselected category “operating system” is added to the “OS/2” bookshelfand the bookshelf dynamically rearranges itself to show a subset of“OS/2” documents that have a theme of “operating system.” In thisexample, the number of documents is reduced from forty to ten. Thedisplay area also rearranges itself to indicate that there are fewerperipheral themes (and fewer documents per theme) for the set of “OS/2;operating system” documents. In this example, all of the peripheralthemes are visible within the display area 310, as indicated by thescrollbars 320 and locator map 375. If the contract button 225 ispressed, the view is changed back to the original “OS/2” view shown inFIG. 3a. The expand button 230 is not active at this level. The listbutton 235 may be pressed to change the display to a view of thedocuments classified under “OS/2” and the peripheral themes for thedocuments. In addition, a document may be selected from the list, andany of the buttons may be pressed to obtain various views of thedocument.

Virtual Bookshelf Action Functions:

As discussed above, the virtual bookshelf permits execution of severalaction functions after locating one or more documents. At any point inthe hierarchical structure, a topic or category may be selected, and anindex function may be invoked via the index button 250. FIG. 4aillustrates an example display after execution of the index function fora selected document. For this example, the category “OS/2” is selected,and list button 235 is pressed to obtain the display screen illustratedin FIG. 2f. In order to invoke the index function from a list ofdocuments, a document is selected and the index button 250 is pressed.In response, the virtual bookshelf displays, directly underneath theselected document in the navigational section 310, a back-of-book indexfor the selected document. For the example illustrated in FIG. 4a, thedocument “OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role” is selected, and theback-of-book index is displayed.

In the virtual bookshelf system configuration (FIG. 1), the commandmodule 135 receives the user indication that the index function and the“OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role” document were selected. To display thedisplay screen with the back-of-book index, the command module 135accesses the index table 170 to retrieve the back-of-book index for theselected document “OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role”, and it dispatchesthe display information for rendering on the output display.

In one embodiment, the virtual bookshelf system includes point of viewabstracts. In general, point of view abstracts provide a brief synopsisof the document from a user specified point of view. Although a documenttypically contains one general topic, the document covers severalsub-topics falling within the general topic. Because a document maycontain many sub-topics, two different users may be interested in twodifferent sub-topics. To accommodate the particular needs of a user, thevirtual bookshelf provides different points of view in the abstractsdepending upon the focus of the user.

For the point of view abstract embodiment, the abstract records 187contain one or more abstracts for a document, wherein each abstract hasa unique point of view for the same document. To fully catalog thevirtual bookshelf, an abstract for each possible point of view for adocument is stored in the abstract records 187. For example, a documentabout operating systems may contain information that covers both theOS/2 operating system and the manufacturer of the OS/2 operating system,International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). For this example, theabstract records 187 stores two abstracts for a single document. A firstabstract focuses on the OS/2 operating system, and a second abstractfocuses on IBM's involvement with the OS/2 operating system.

The point of view abstracts are displayed upon invocation of an abstractfunction. In general, the abstract function, invoked from the abstractbutton 270, displays a brief synopsis of the document within the list ofdocuments with a particular slant or point of view. A user of thevirtual bookshelf system may set the focus for the point of viewabstracts in any number of ways. In one embodiment, the point of viewfor the abstract is derived from the path the user navigated to obtainthe bookshelf set. For example, if a user invokes the list function fora selected category and then invokes the abstract function for adocument classified in that category, then the abstract displayed isfrom the point of view of the selected category.

As an alternative to selecting the point of view from the navigatedpath, the user may pre-set one or more categories to receive abstractsthat have the point of view for those categories. In one embodiment, theuser sets an abstract configuration table (not shown) to reflect theuser's interest in one or more top level categories. For example, a usermay be a computer programmer and desire to view abstracts of documentsrelating to “science, technology, and education” with a technical slant,or a user may be a marketing manager and desire to view abstracts ofdocuments relating to “science, technology, and education” with amarketing slant. Note that a user must select a point of view in a topicor category for which a selected document is classified, either directlyor cross referenced. However, a user may select a point of view fordifferent topics, and the virtual bookshelf displays the point of viewabstract that relates to the topic or category classified for theselected document. The information may be entered into the abstractconfiguration table by a user through any well known means.

FIG. 4b illustrates an example display that includes a point of viewabstract for the OS/2 category. Specifically, for this example, thedocument “OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role” in the OS/2 category isselected, and the abstract button 270 is pressed. In response, thevirtual bookshelf system displays a brief synopsis of the documentdirectly beneath the listing of the document “OS/2 Takes MultiprocessingRole” as shown in FIG. 4b. For this example, the virtual bookshelfdisplays an abstract with the point of view of OS/2 because the userselected the OS/2 category to obtain the bookshelf set of documents.FIG. 4c illustrates an example display that includes a point of viewabstract for the International Business Machines Corporation category.For this example, the document “OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role” in theInternational Business Machines Corporation category is selected, andthe abstract button 270 is pressed. In response, the virtual bookshelfdisplays a point of view abstract that focuses on IBM's operationsconcerning OS/2. For the examples illustrated in FIGS. 4b and 4 c, twodifferent abstracts were displayed for the “OS/2 Takes MultiprocessingRole” document.

The point of view abstracts utilize the intuitive visual paradigm of thevirtual bookshelf. The visual paradigm provides a user with categories,organized in a hierarchical structure, such that the user moves throughlevels of the hierarchical structure to select categories of interest.Therefore, the user generates a path in the hierarchical structure, fromthe top level down, indicative of the topic of interest. For the exampleillustrated in FIG. 4c, if the user was strictly interested in the OS/2operating system, then the user would have navigated through the“operating systems” and “OS/2” categories instead of the “InternationalBusiness Machines Corporation” category. Consequently, if thenavigational path approach is used, the virtual bookshelf automaticallydisplays an abstract of a document with a point of view desired by theuser.

In the virtual bookshelf system (FIG. 1), the command module 135receives a user indication that the abstract function and the “OS/2Takes Multiprocessing Role” document were selected. In addition, thecommand module 135 receives information regarding the category for thecurrent bookshelf set. Furthermore, if the abstract configuration tableis set, then the command module 135 utilizes the relevant topic orcategory to identify a specific abstract. The command module 135 thenaccesses the abstract records 187 to retrieve an abstract for theselected document and for the selected point of view. The command module135 dispatches the corresponding abstract text to the screen module 140for rendering on the output display.

The virtual bookshelf also provides full text display for a selecteddocument. To invoke the full text function of the virtual bookshelf, thefull text button 260 is pressed, and a document is selected to displaythe text for that document. FIG. 4d illustrates an example display afterexecution of the full text function for a selected document. For theexample display shown in FIG. 4d, if the document “OS/2 TakesMultiprocessing Role” is selected, and the full text button 260 ispressed, the full text for the selected document “OS/2 TakesMultiprocessing Role” is displayed in the display area 310.

In one embodiment, after a document is selected and an action functionis invoked, the name of the selected document and bibliographicinformation are displayed in a box located in the display area 300. Forthe example display shown in FIG. 4d, the document title andbibliographic information “OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role; Ed Scannel,1994” is displayed in a rectangular box labeled 420. The parent categoryfor the selected document is also displayed in the display area 300 in arectangular box labeled 430. The category “OS/2” is the parent categoryfor the “OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role” document. Furthermore, agraphical depiction of the available documents for the currentlyselected category is displayed in the display area 300 with thecurrently selected document highlighted. In one embodiment, a book endis rendered for each document available for the currently selectedcategory. The graphical depiction of the available documents for theselected category “OS/2” is labeled 440 on the example display of FIG.4e. The width of the book end for a corresponding document indicates therelevance of the document for the currently selected category relativeto the other available documents. For the example display of FIG. 4e,the width of the book ends in the graphical book end rendering 440indicate how relevant the document is to OS/2. In addition, the book endfor the currently selected document is highlighted.

To execute the full text function in the virtual bookshelf system (FIG.1), the command module 135 receives the user indication that the fulltext function and the “OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role” document wereselected. In response, the command module 135 accesses the “OS/2 TakesMultiprocessing Role” document from the documents 100, and it transfersthe document text to the screen module 140. In turn, the screen module140 displays the document text in the display section 310. From the fulltext, a user may select additional functions.

A speed read function, invoked from the speed read button 290, displaysthe full text of the selected document with the major content bearingwords highlighted. An example display for the speed read function isshown in FIG. 4e. The virtual bookshelf displays the example display ofFIG. 4e in response to a user that selected the document “OS/2 TakesMultiprocessing Role” and pressed the speed read button 290. If the userreads only the highlighted content carrying words, the user may extractthe main ideas of the selected document without reading the entiredocument. The display for the speed read function also contains displayinformation in the display area 300 identical to the display informationin display area 300 discussed above in conjunction with FIG. 4d.

To execute the speed read function in the virtual bookshelf system (FIG.1), the command module 135 receives the user indication that the speedread function and the “OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role” document wereselected. In response, the command module 135 accesses the “OS/2 TakesMultiprocessing Role” document from the documents 100 and informationfrom the speed read records 190 for the “OS/2 Takes MultiprocessingRole” document. In one embodiment, the information contained in thespeed read records 190 identifies the content bearing words for thecorresponding document. The full text of the document is displayed withthe content bearing words highlighted through use of the speed readrecord for the “OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role” document.

The virtual bookshelf further includes a summary function that displaysa reduced form of the document (e.g. displaying only the main ideas). Auser invokes the summary function by selecting a document and bypressing the summary active button 295. FIG. 4f illustrates an exampledisplay for the summary function for the selected document “OS/2 TakesMultiprocessing Role.” In one embodiment of the summary function, thevirtual bookshelf system displays sentences and phrases, separated by aspace, wherein each sentence or phrase conveys a main idea for theselected document. The display for the summary function also containsdisplay information in the display area 300 identical to the displayinformation in display area 300 discussed above in conjunction with FIG.4d.

To execute the summary function in the virtual bookshelf system (FIG.1), the command module 135 receives the user indication that the summaryfunction for the “OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role” document wasselected. In response, the command module 135 accesses the summaryrecord for the document “OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role” from thesummary records 195, and the screen module 140 updates the display withthe summary information.

A theme function for the virtual bookshelf displays various types ofdocument level theme data. In general, the theme information conveys tothe user the most important themes contained in a selected document.FIGS. 4g and 4 h illustrate example displays for the theme function. Thetheme function is invoked by selecting a document and pressing the themeaction button 280. The themes identified are topics or categories fromthe knowledge catalog and topic table 165. As shown in FIGS. 4g and 4 h,for the “OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role” document, a theme strength foreach theme is displayed. The theme strengths are relative to other themestrengths. As shown in FIG. 4g, the “OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role”document is more about “operating systems” than “computer softwareindustry” in a ratio of approximately 35 to 29.

For the example illustrated in FIGS. 4g and 4 h, the virtual bookshelfdisplays, in additional to the theme strength, the hierarchy ofcategories for the theme. The hierarchy is derived from the knowledgecatalog, and it is shown down to the category of the theme. For example,for the theme “operating systems”, the parent categories “computersoftware industry”, “computer industry”, “electronics”, and “hardscience and technology” are shown. To execute the theme function in thevirtual bookshelf system (FIG. 1), the command module 135 receives theuser indication that the theme function for the “OS/2 TakesMultiprocessing Role” document was selected. In response, the commandmodule 135 accesses the theme record for the document “OS/2 TakesMultiprocessing Role” from the theme records 155, and the screen module140 updates the display with the theme information.

Navigating the Virtual Bookshelf Using Detailed Views:

In addition to navigating with the categories generated from the topictable 165, a user may navigate the virtual bookshelf through use ofindex information. In order to navigate with detailed views, a userselects a category or topic and presses the detail action button 240.The display in FIG. 2e illustrates a starting point for an example tonavigate with detailed views. Specifically, FIG. 2e illustrates a firstpage of the expansion of the category “operating systems.” For thisexample, the topic “OS/2” is selected, and the detail button 240 ispressed. The result for this example is illustrated in FIG. 5a. As shownin FIG. 5a, the selected category “OS/2” is added to the history section300, and an alphabetically arranged list of index context entries forwhich OS/2 is an index head is displayed in the navigational section310. In order to obtain a list of documents that have an index entry for“OS/2, running”, the user selects the “running” index and presses theview 255 button from the display shown in FIG. 5a. In response, thevirtual bookshelf displays a list of all the documents that have anindex entry of “OS/2, running” as shown in FIG. 5b.

The user may opt to select another of the context entries to extract alist of documents. If this is done, the list for “running” iscontracted, and the list of documents for the newly selected entry isexpanded. In order to obtain further indexing information, the userselects one of the documents to display the specific index referencesfor that document. For example, if a user selects the second document,“OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role”, and invokes the expand function viathe expand button 225, then the virtual bookshelf displays a list of thespecific index references immediately below the document as shown inFIG. 5c. In this manner, the user may select another document to extracta list of references within that document.

The virtual bookshelf permits a user to view the document text for acorresponding reference. To execute this function, a user selects one ofthe references to hyper link to that specific location within thecorresponding document. For example, for the display shown in FIG. 5c,if a user selects the “Para8” and presses the expand button 225, thentext from the part of the document that contains the specific referenceis displayed in the navigational section 310 as shown in FIG. 5d. Therelevant text from the selected paragraph is displayed such that theselected paragraph is positioned in the center of the display in a box,and the indexed entry is highlighted. The command module 135 (FIG. 1)executes the hyper link function by utilizing the locate information inthe index table 170 to display the relevant portions of the selecteddocument. In addition, the title of the selected document includingbibliographical information is displayed in a box labeled 420 on FIG.5d. Also, the selected document is highlighted on the book end icon 440,and the parent category for the index entry, OS/2, is displayed in thebox 430. At this point, the full text of the document is displayed, andthe user may scroll up or down with the scroll bar 320 to view moretext. Additionally, the user may execute the contract function to returnto a previous screen, or the user may execute the index, abstract, speedread, summary, or theme functions.

Navigating the Virtual Bookshelf Using Index Views:

The virtual bookshelf permits a user to navigate through hierarchiesusing index views. At any point in the hierarchical structure, a topicmay be selected, and an index function may be invoked via the indexbutton 250. For example, FIG. 2e illustrates a starting display for anexample using index views to navigate. For this example, the category“OS/2” is selected, and the index button 250 is pressed. In response,the virtual bookshelf displays a combined back-of-book index for alldocuments classified under OS/2 in the navigational section 310 as shownin FIG. 6a. In addition, the selected category “OS/2” is added to thehistory section 300.

From the back-of-book index, a user may select a subject to view a listof documents. FIG. 6b illustrates an example display generated inresponse to selection of the view function from the combinedback-of-book index shown in the display of FIG. 6a. For this example, auser selects the context entry “DOS” under the head index“applications”, and the user invokes the view function. The visualbookshelf displays a list of all the documents that have an index entryof “Applications, DOS.” The list of documents are displayed immediatelyfollowing the selected entry as shown in FIG. 6b. At this point, a usermay opt to select another of the context entries to extract a list ofdocuments. In addition, a user may select one of the documents todisplay the specific index references for that document.

FIG. 6c illustrates an example display that displays index referencesbeneath a selected document. For this example, a user selects thedocument “OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role”, and the user presses theexpand button 225. In response, the virtual bookshelf system displaysthe index reference “Para 15” to reflect that the “Applications, DOS”information is located in the fifteenth paragraph of the “OS/2 TakesMultiprocessing Role” document. At this point a user may opt to selectanother of the documents to extract a list of references.

In the preferred embodiment, the virtual bookshelf permits selection ofone of the index references to hyper link to the specific location inthe text. FIG. 6d illustrates an example display of text for a selectedreference paragraph within a selected document. A user locates thereferenced text in the document by selecting a paragraph reference, suchas “Para 15”, and pressing the expand button 225. In response, thevirtual bookshelf displays the selected document in the history section300, and displays the part of the document that contains the selectedreference in the navigation section 310. As shown in FIG. 6d, theselected paragraph is positioned in the center display, and the selectedparagraph is outline. In addition, the indexed entry is highlighted.Also, the selected document is +highlighted on the book end icon 440,and the parent category for the index entry, OS/2, is displayed in thebox 430. With the full text of the document displayed, the user mayscroll up or down to view more of the text. In addition, a user maypress any of the action buttons to invoke the contract, index, abstract,speed read, summary or theme functions.

Navigating the Virtual Bookshelf Using Cross References:

The virtual bookshelf further includes the ability for a user tonavigate using cross references within the topic table 165. As discussedabove, cross references are contained in the topic table 165 if adocument is classified under more than one category in the knowledgecatalog (Appendix A). Table 1 contains an example hierarchy focusing ona document about the OS/2 operating system.

TABLE 1 hard science and technology communications electronicsadvertising industry computer industry marketing computer softwareindustry operating systems OS/2

As shown in Table 1, OS/2 is classified under operating systems, whichis classified under computer software industry, etc. For this example,the document also contains information regarding marketing issuesrelated to OS/2. Table 1 also contains a classification for marketing.The marketing category is classified under the parent category“advertising industry”, and it is further classified under the parentcategory “communications.”

The following example illustrates how a user navigates through thevirtual bookshelf by utilizing the cross references in the topic table165. FIG. 7a illustrates the high level categories for the knowledgecatalog including the “business and economics” category expanded to showthe next lower level. If a user selects the “business and industry”category and invokes the expand function, the virtual bookshelfdisplays, in the navigational section 310, the expanded hierarchy underthe “business and industry” category. In addition, the “business andindustry” category is placed under the “business and economics” categoryin the history section 300. FIG. 7b illustrates the virtual bookshelfdisplay for the above action.

To view more detailed hierarchies covering the topic “marketing”, a userselects the “marketing” category and presses the expand button 225. FIG.7c illustrates the virtual bookshelf display for expanding the“marketing” category. As shown in FIG. 7c, several categories under“marketing”, including “OS/2”, are displayed in the navigation section310. Also, the parent categories “commerce and trade” and “marketing”are added to the history section 300. The category “General²” under theparent category “marketing” indicates that two of the forty documentsare directly classified under “marketing.” The categories “DOS”, “OS/2”,“UNIX”, “Microsoft”, and “International Business Machines Corporation”,are cross referenced to “marketing”, as indicated by the broken lineboxes around these categories.

To view documents under “OS/2”, the “OS/2” category is selected, and thelist button 235 is pressed. FIG. 7d illustrates the screen display inresponse to the previous selection. As shown in FIG. 7d, the selectedcategory “OS/2” is added to the history section 300, and thebibliographical entries for the 15 documents classified under “OS/2” and“marketing” categories are displayed in the navigational section 310.From the list of documents, a user may select a document, and the usermay select one of the action buttons (e.g. contract, expand, list orview, index, abstract, speed read, summary, and theme).

To view the full text of a document, a document, such as the document“OS/2 Takes Multiprocessing Role”, is selected, and the expand functionis invoked. These operations result in the display illustrated in FIG.7e. As shown in FIG. 7e, the full text of the selected document, “OS/2Takes Multiprocessing Role”, is displayed. In addition, the user mayscroll up or down to view more of the text. Also, the selected documentis highlighted on the book end icon 440, and the parent category for theindex entry, OS/2, is displayed in the box 430. Furthermore, the usermay press any of the action buttons (e.g., contract, index, abstract,speed read, summary, and theme) to execute the corresponding function.

Navigating the Virtual Bookshelf Using the Generic Classification:

The generic classifications of the virtual bookshelf may also be used tonavigate the hierarchy and to locate specific information in documents.FIG. 8a illustrates an example home page display including a display ofthe high level categories from the knowledge catalog. To navigate usingthe generic classification, a user may utilize the virtual clerk. Forexample, a user may select the generic classification category on thehome page, and the user may enter a “P” in the virtual clerk data entryfield 270. FIG. 8b illustrates an example display in response toselecting the generic classification and to entering the “P” in thevirtual clerk data entry field 270. As shown in FIG. 8b, a portion ofthe hierarchy, which includes a portion of the list of terms that havebeen generically classified along with the categories in the hierarchyto which the terms have been dynamically cross referenced, is displayed.At this point, all navigational options are available to the user.

Locating Information with the Virtual Bookshelf

The virtual bookshelf of the present invention accepts queries tonavigate the hierarchy. The entering of a query or token, through use ofthe virtual clerk, provides an alternative to the top down navigationapproaches discussed above. A query may be entered through the virtualclerk from any screen that the virtual clerk is displayed. As describedmore fully below, a query may constitute a word or phrase, or section ofa text representing the area of information sought by the user. Tonavigate with the virtual clerk, a user enters the word or phrase ortext in the virtual clerk data entry field 270, and the user presses thelocate button 280. In response, the virtual bookshelf system locates, ifavailable, the hierarchy for the category or index entry thatcorresponds to the query, and it displays a portion of that hierarchy.

For certain queries, the word entered matches a unique entry in thetopic table 165. For such a topic location, the corresponding categorybecomes the entry point into the display of the hierarchy. The virtualbookshelf system displays, in the history section 300, the hierarchicalpath that leads to the requested category. This hierarchical pathincludes the name of the requested category at the bottom of the list ofcategories. In addition, the navigation section 310 displays the part ofthe hierarchy directly beneath the selected category. At this point, thenavigational approach discussed above may be used, or another morespecific query entered for an additional location.

In other cases, a word entered into the virtual clerk does not appear asa topic in the topic table 165 but appears as an index head in the indextable 170. As discussed above, index heads are dynamically classified,and that classification is stored with the index head. If a word enteredinto the virtual clerk appears as an index head, then the variousclassifications associated with the index head are displayed forselection. The selected classification is the entry point into thedisplay of the hierarchy. For such a concept search, the virtualbookshelf system displays, in the history section 300, the hierarchicalpath that leads to the selected category including the index head at thebottom of the path. Also, the navigational section 310 contains the partof the hierarchy directly beneath the selected category. Similar to thetopic search, a user may use the navigational approach at this point, orthe user may select another term for processing by the virtual bookshelfsystem.

A user may also query the virtual clerk through use of a naturallanguage query. For the natural language query approach, a user entersinto the virtual clerk data entry field 270 a natural language phrase,clause, sentence, etc. For this type of entry, the text is analyzed,topics included in the query are isolated, and the classifications ofthe topics are presented for selection by the user. The selectedclassification becomes the entry point into the display of thehierarchy. Query by example provides an additional location mechanism.In query by example, a user enters a phrase, clause, sentence, etc. bycopying and passing part of a displayed text into the virtual clerk dataentry field 270. Similar to the natural language query, the virtualclerk analyzes the text selected, isolates the topic or topics includedin the query, and presents the classification of topics for the user toselect. The selected classification then becomes the entry point intothe display of the hierarchy.

The positioning module 120 (FIG. 1) generates display information inresponse to a user input query. For a query that corresponds to a uniquetopic in the topic table 165, the positioning module 120 utilizes thehierarchical structure information in the topic table 165 to display therelevant portion of the hierarchical structure. For a query thatcorresponds to an index head in the index table 170, the positioningmodule 120 utilizes the hierarchical structure information in theindex/topic table 185 and the index table 170 to display the relevantportion of the hierarchical structure. In a preferred embodiment, thequery by example and the natural language query are analyzed to generatethe locate information via a computer program. A computer program foraccomplishing this task is entitled ConText™, from Oracle® Corporation,Redwood Shores, Calif., the assignee of the present invention. TheConText™ program analyzes the query by example and the natural languagequery to determine the topics and/or index heads associated with thequery, and the positioning module 120 displays the corresponding portionof the hierarchical structure. However, any program that identifies thetheme or themes of the query by example and the natural language querymay be used to map the query into the hierarchical structure.Furthermore, for query by example, the virtual bookshelf system may alsostore positioning information for text in the documents 100 to map thetext to the hierarchical structure.

FIG. 9a illustrates an example display for knowledge catalog or topicsearching with the virtual clerk. For this example, the user enters theterm “operating system” in the virtual clerk data entry field 270. Inresponse, the virtual bookshelf displays, in the history section 300,the hierarchical path that leads to the selected category “operatingsystems.” In addition, the category “operating systems” appears at thebottom of the list in the history section 300. The navigation section310 displays the part of the hierarchy directly beneath the category“operating systems.” Note that the “operating system” phrase entered hasbeen pluralized by the virtual bookshelf system to match the formatstored in the knowledge catalog, “operating systems.” At this point, theuser may use the navigational approach, or enter another term forprocessing.

FIG. 9b illustrates an example display for concept location with thevirtual clerk. For this example, a user enters the concept “OS/2” on thevirtual clerk data entry field 270. In response, the virtual bookshelfdisplays, in the history section 300, the hierarchical path that leadsto the selected category “OS/2”, including the parent category“operating systems.” In addition, the navigational section 310 displaysthe part of the hierarchy directly beneath the selected category “OS/2.”At this point, either the navigation approach or entry of another searchterm may be used. Note that the category “OS/2” involves conceptlocation because the concept OS/2 does not appear in the staticontologys of the knowledge catalog.

The virtual bookshelf system does not merely display, in response to alocation query, a list of documents that correspond to the token.Instead, as discussed above, the virtual bookshelf displays a portion ofthe hierarchy to show the user the location of the correspondingcategory in the hierarchy. In this way, the user views all categories inthe peripheral area of the hierarchy that corresponds to the query term.This location approach to search and retrieval is similar to looking forinformation in a bookstore. In the bookstore approach, a user does notdirectly look in a book for a specific topic, but first locates the areain the bookstore containing a general category for the topic. Using thevirtual bookshelf approach, the user may view additional peripheraltopics that would not have otherwise been revealed to the user.Therefore, the user may select additional topics from the categoriespresented. Consequently, by placing the user in the general area and byallowing the user to understand how the user was directed to the area, auser may select other related documents even more pertinent to the usersinitial query of interest.

A user may enter a token, and the token may be ambiguous. In theknowledge catalog and the stored hierarchy in the reference tables 150,a term is characterized as ambiguous if the term has more than one senseor meaning. Therefore, a user may enter a token that has more than onesense, thereby rendering the token ambiguous to the system. FIG. 9cillustrates an example display for querying the virtual bookshelf with aterm that is ambiguous (e.g. the term is contained in more than onecategory in the hierarchy). As shown in FIG. 9c, the term “Windows95” isentered in the virtual clerk data entry field 270. Since the term hasnot been classified in the knowledge catalog, there is no single entrypoint into the hierarchy. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9c, the virtualbookshelf does not display a history section 300. The navigation section310 includes a list of abbreviated classifications of the documents thatcover the selected term.

For the Windows 95 example, three major classifications emerge, “hardscience and technology”, “communications”, and “leisure and recreation.”At this point, the user determines whether the user is interested ininformation concerning Windows 95 that relates to hard science andtechnology, communication, or leisure and recreation. For example, if auser is interested in the compatibility of Windows 95 with certain videogames, then the user would select “leisure and recreation” as thecorrect category. Similarly, the user may select the “hard science andtechnology” category or “communication” category. The virtual bookshelf,through use of displaying all senses for a particular term, results in amethod for disambiguation. The user alleviates the ambiguity in theinput token by selecting the appropriate category corresponding to thesense intended by the user.

The natural language query approach is used by entering a phrase thatcorresponds to the area of interest. For example, as shown in FIG. 9d, auser may enter a phrase “computer hardware utilizing SMP basedsoftware.” For this query, the virtual bookshelf displays multipleclassifications because there is no unique entry point into the virtualbookshelf hierarchy. Consequently, the virtual bookshelf does notdisplay a history section 300, but it displays a list of abbreviatedclassifications of the expression entered in the navigation section 310.For this particular example, three classes under the “hard science andtechnology” emerge. Similar to the example shown in FIG. 9c, one of theselected categories is chosen by the user as an entry point into thehierarchy. Again, the user disambiguates the entry point into thehierarchy by specifying a specific sense to the natural language phrase.

FIG. 9e illustrates the query by example approach for the virtualbookshelf. The starting point of this example is a display of text fromwhich a query by example may be taken (FIG. 9e). In this case, twoparagraphs of the text are highlighted, and they are input into thevirtual clerk data entry field 270. In response, the virtual bookshelfdisplays one ore more relevant categories. For this case, the query byexample results in multiple classifications as shown in FIG. 9f.Therefore, there is no unique entry point into the hierarchicalstructure. Consequently, the virtual bookshelf displays, in thenavigational section 310, a list of abbreviated classifications of theexpression entered. For this example, two categories under the “hardscience and technology” parent category emerge. Again, the user selectsone of the categories as an entry point into the hierarchy for theselected hierarchy.

Computer System:

FIG. 10 illustrates a high level block diagram of a general purposecomputer system in which the virtual bookshelf system of the presentinvention may be implemented. A computer system 1000 contains aprocessor unit 1005, main memory 1010, and an interconnect bus 1025. Theprocessor unit 1005 may contain a single microprocessor, or may containa plurality of microprocessors for configuring the computer system 1000as a multi-processor system. The main memory 1010 stores, in part,instructions and data for execution by the processor unit 1005. If thevirtual bookshelf system of the present invention is wholly or partiallyimplemented in software, the main memory 1010 stores the executable codewhen in operation. The main memory 1010 may include banks of dynamicrandom access memory (DRAM) as well as high speed cache memory.

The computer system 1000 further includes a mass storage device 1020,peripheral device(s) 1030, portable storage medium drive(s) 1040, inputcontrol device(s) 1070, a graphics subsystem 1050, and an output display1060. For purposes of simplicity, all components in the computer system1000 are shown in FIG. 10 as being connected via the bus 1025. However,the computer system 1025 may be connected through one or more datatransport means. For example, the processor unit 1005 and the mainmemory 1010 may be connected via a local microprocessor bus, and themass storage device 1020, peripheral device(s) 1030, portable storagemedium drive(s) 1040, graphics subsystem 1050 may be connected via oneor more input/output (I/O) busses. The mass storage device 1020, whichmay be implemented with a magnetic disk drive or an optical disk drive,is a non-volatile storage device for storing data and instructions foruse by the processor unit 1005. In the software embodiment, the massstorage device 1020 stores the virtual bookshelf system software forloading to the main memory 1010.

The portable storage medium drive 1040 operates in conjunction with aportable non-volatile storage medium, such as a floppy disk or a compactdisc read only memory (CD-ROM), to input and output data and code to andfrom the computer system 1000. In one embodiment, the virtual bookshelfsoftware is stored on such a portable medium, and is input to thecomputer system 1000 via the portable storage medium drive 1040. Theperipheral device(s) 1030 may include any type of computer supportdevice, such as an input/output (I/O) interface, to add additionalfunctionality to the computer system 1000. For example, the peripheraldevice(s) 1030 may include a network interface card for interfacing thecomputer system 1000 to a network. For the software implementation, thedocuments may be input to the computer system 1000 via a portablestorage medium or a network for processing by the virtual bookshelfsystem.

The input control device(s) 1070 provide a portion of the user interfacefor a user of the computer system 1000. The input control device(s) 1070may include an alphanumeric keypad for inputting alphanumeric and otherkey information, a cursor control device, such as a mouse, a trackball,stylus, or cursor direction keys. In order to display textual andgraphical information, the computer system 1000 contains the graphicssubsystem 1050 and the output display 1060. The output display 1060 mayinclude a cathode ray tube (CRT) display or liquid crystal display(LCD). The graphics subsystem 1050 receives textual and graphicalinformation, and processes the information for output to the outputdisplay 1060. The components contained in the computer system 1000 arethose typically found in general purpose computer systems, and in fact,these components are intended to represent a broad category of suchcomputer components that are well known in the art.

The virtual bookshelf system may be implemented in either hardware orsoftware. For the software implementation, the virtual bookshelf systemis software that includes a plurality of computer executableinstructions for implementation on a general purpose computer system.Prior to loading into a general purpose computer system, the virtualbookshelf system software may reside as encoded information on acomputer readable medium, such as a magnetic floppy disk, magnetic tape,and compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM). In one hardwareimplementation, the virtual bookshelf system may comprise a dedicatedprocessor including processor instructions for performing the functionsdescribed herein. Circuits may also be developed to perform thefunctions described herein. The reference tables 150 may be implementedas a database stored in memory for use by the virtual bookshelf system.

Although the present invention has been described in terms of specificexemplary embodiments, it will be appreciated that various modificationsand alterations might be made by those skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in thefollowing claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for displaying point of view abstractsin a document browsing system, said method comprising the steps of:storing information to classify a plurality of documents into categoriesincluding classifying a single document in a plurality of categories;displaying representations of said categories to permit a user of saiddocument browsing system to browse and locate documents classified in acorresponding category; storing a plurality of point of view abstractsfor at least one document, wherein a point of view abstract comprises asynopsis of a document with a slant toward subject matter identifiedthrough one of said categories for which said document was classified;and displaying a point of view abstract for a document to provide asynopsis of the document with a slant toward said subject matter.
 2. Themethod as set forth in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:receiving input from said user to select categories displayed; andselecting one of said point of view abstracts for display based on saidcategories selected.
 3. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein: thestep of storing information to classify a plurality of documentscomprises the step of storing the categories in a hierarchical structureto reflect broader and narrower relationships; and the step ofdisplaying representations of said categories comprises the step ofdisplaying representations of said categories in said hierarchicalstructure.
 4. The method as set forth in claim 1, further comprising thesteps of: receiving input from said user to specify one or morepreference categories for viewing point of view abstracts; and selectingone of said point of view abstracts for display based on said preferencecategories.
 5. A method for displaying information in a documentbrowsing system, said method comprising the steps of: storinginformation to classify a plurality of documents including classifying asingle document in a plurality of categories; storing a plurality ofpoint of view abstracts for a document, wherein a point of view abstractcomprises a synopsis of a document with a slant towards subject matteridentified through one of said categories for which said document wasclassified; receiving, from said user, input to select an abstract forat least one of said documents; selecting, as a preference category fora user of said document browsing system, at least one category; anddisplaying a point of view abstract for said document selected bymatching a preference category for said user with a category for whichsaid document selected was classified.
 6. The method as set forth inclaim 5, wherein the step of selecting preference categories for a usercomprises the steps of: displaying representations of said categories topermit a user of said document browsing system to browse and locatedocuments classified in a corresponding category; receiving input fromsaid user to select a category from one of said categories displayed;receiving input from said user to select a document classified for saidcategory selected; and selecting as a preference category for said usersaid category selected.
 7. The method as set forth in claim 6, wherein:the step of storing information to classify a plurality of documentscomprises the step of storing the categories in a hierarchical structureto reflect broader and narrower relationships; and the step ofdisplaying representations of said categories comprising the step ofdisplaying representations of said categories in said hierarchicalstructure.
 8. The method as set forth in claim 5, wherein the step ofselecting preference categories for a user comprises the step ofreceiving input from said user to specify said preference categories. 9.A computer readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions, whichwhen executed by a computer, causes the computer to execute the stepsof: storing information to classify a plurality of documents intocategories including classifying a single document in a plurality ofcategories; displaying representations of said categories to permit auser of said document browsing system to browse and locate documentsclassified in a corresponding category; storing a plurality of point ofview abstracts for at least one document, wherein a point of viewabstract comprises a synopsis of a document with a slant toward subjectmatter identified through one of said categories for which said documentwas classified; and displaying a point of view abstract for a documentto provide a synopsis of the document with a slant toward said subjectmatter.
 10. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 9,further comprising the steps of: receiving input from said user toselect categories displayed; and selecting one of said point of viewabstracts for display based on said categories selected.
 11. Thecomputer readable medium as set forth in claim 9, wherein: the step ofstoring information to classify a plurality of documents comprises thestep of storing the categories in a hierarchical structure to reflectbroader and narrower relationships; and the step of displayingrepresentations of said categories comprises the step of displayingrepresentations of said categories in said hierarchical structure. 12.The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 9, further comprisingthe steps of: receiving input from said user to specify one or morepreference categories for viewing point of view abstracts; and selectingone of said point of view abstracts for display based on said preferencecategories.